A University of Virginia student accused of shooting dead three members of the football team and wounding two others had previously been on the radar of the college’s threat assessment team.
Police identified the suspect in the shooting near a parking garage on the main campus on Sunday night as student and former football player Christoper Darnell Jones, 22.
The suspect fled the scene, plunging the university’s residences into lockdown as students and staff were commanded by UVA Police to shelter in place and seek safety. Following a 12-hour manhunt, Mr Jones was found about 75 miles from the UVA campus around 11am on Monday and taken into custody by Henrico County Police.
D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr, and Devin Chandler were shot and killed, while two other victims, whose identities have not been released, remain hospitalised — one of them in critical condition. Mr Jones has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in connection to the shooting.
UVA Police Chief Timothy Longo revealed on Monday that a UVA multidisciplinary threat assessment team launched an investigation after receiving reports that Mr Jones made comments about owning a gun to an individual unaffiliated with the university. Mr Longo said that Mr Jones had not made threats at the time, but simply mentioned he had a firearm.
“Because I want to be transparent with you, I want you to know … Mr Jones came to the attention of the University of Virginia’s threat assessment team in the fall of 2022,” Mr Longo said. “They received information that Mr Jones had made a comment about possessing a gun to a person that was unaffiliated with the university.”
It is unclear how the investigation unfolded, but Mr Longo said that the individual in question and Mr Jones’ roommate, who did not see the gun, were questioned. Mr Longo also mentioned that Mr Jones had been investigated in connection to an alleged hazing incident but the inquiry fell apart after witnesses did not come forward with information.
The team learned that Mr Jones had violated protocol by not informing the university about a criminal incident in February 2021 in which he had been involved. The criminal investigation took place outside of Charlottesville and was in relation to a concealed weapon violation, NBC reported.
“He’s required as a student at the University of Virginia to report that and he never did, so the University has taken appropriate administrative charges through the University’s judiciary council and that matter is still pending adjudication,” Mr Longo said.
According to police, the suspect staged the attack near a parking garage on Sunday evening at approximately 10.40pm.
Police finally announced Mr Jones’ arrest just after 11am local time following warnings to the public that he was considered “armed and dangerous”.
His arrest marked the end of a nearly 12-hour episode that had left students and staff locked inside their rooms.
Officers first identified the suspected shooter in the massacre just after midnight on Monday, while sharing a headshot of the 22-year-old that appeared to be lifted from UVA’s athletics’ website, as he was a former football player for the school.
“The UVA Police Department is looking for Christopher Darnell Jones regarding the shooting incident that occurred on the grounds of the University of Virginia. Call 911 if seen, do not approach,” the department tweeted, warning that he was believed to be “armed and dangerous” in several follow-up posts.
Officers added that the 22-year-old suspected gunman was last seen wearing a burgundy jacket, blue jeans with red shoes and was thought to possibly be driving a black SUV with the driver’s licence TWX3580.
Mr Jones reportedly grew up in Richmond and played football at two area high schools.
He was a former football player for the UVA and is included on the university’s athletics website on the 2018 roster, though he didn’t appear in any games.
The website lists Mr Jones’ hometown as Petersburg, Virginia, where he played linebacker and running back at Petersburg High School. He “earned honourable mention all-conference honours as a senior” and spent three years of his high school education at Varina High School where he earned honourable mention all-conference as a freshman and second-team accolades as a sophomore and junior.
The website lists a number of Mr Jones’ accomplishments at high school, which include being a member of the National Honor Society and the National Technical Honor Society, serving as president of Key Club and Jobs for Virginia Grads Program and being named the Student of the Year as a freshman and sophomore at Varina.
In a 2018 profile from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Virginia newspaper described how Mr Jones grew up in Essex Village and Mosby Court housing complexes in Richmond, the latter being one of seven public housing communities located in east Richmond where more than 93 per cent of households are headed by a female and the average annual household income is $10,609.
In that same article, Mr Jones was described as being a smart and quiet child by his grandmother, known to him and his siblings as “Grannie”.
“I lift him up more in prayer because I can see the hand of God on him,” said his “Grannie,” Mary Jones in the news article. “He was quiet. Even in school, quiet. His sisters and his brothers would tease. But he was smart. He’s destined for more.”
For Mr Jones, he characterised his parents’ divorce as being “traumatic” as his father left when he was five years old and didn’t return until he was a teen.
“My dad and me were really close. It just hurt me when he had to leave,” he said. “That was one of the most traumatic things that happened to me in my life. I didn’t understand why he left. When I went to school, people didn’t understand me.”
But when he was in the classroom, where he would easily be getting As in the courses he excelled in, that’s where he felt at home.
“When I come into the classrooms, everything flowed,” Mr Jones said at the time.
The then-18-year-old described brushes of fights he’d get into with his peers that would sometimes lead to suspensions but admitted that most of those altercations stemmed from kids seeming surprised that a “kid from the projects” was constantly raising his hand to answer questions.
“I would get upset because my intelligence was being insulted. Kids would pick on me — ‘Why did you do that? Why did you answer that question?’” Mr Jones told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “And in that world, disrespect means you should fight.”
Mr Jones’ relationship with his mother reportedly deteriorated when he was a teen, which later prompted him to move in with his grandmother in the summer of 2016, relocating him to Petersburg, while his siblings continued to live with his mom.
Mentors throughout Mr Jones’ high school years provided guidance, with some confiding to the news outlet that they would take him out to restaurants for meals or buy him new clothes when they noticed him wearing the same outfit days in a row.
“I think he had more anger when I first met him,” said one mentor, Xavier Richardson, interviewed for the article. “He always had strong goals. He was ambitious, but his anger simply got in the way,” Mr Richardson said, who had met the teen in the 11th grade.
Mr Richardson confirmed during that 2018 interview that he had helped the young man navigate much of his financial aid package with the University of Virginia after taking him on multiple college tours.
“If it wasn’t for these people in my life, I would’ve been just another kid whose dad left him,” Mr Jones said of the mentors in his life at the time.
